Background information related to the present disclosure is provided in this background part, and the background information is not necessarily the conventional technology.
A small cell network (SCN) is considered as an effect means for coping with rapid increase of data traffic. In discussion for standardization of the wireless communication, a new reference signal, i.e. a discovery reference signal (DRS), is used to support a small cell on/off mechanism. A small cell base station only transmits the DRS in an off state of the small cell.
Indoor positioning is one of important works in standardization of wireless communication technology. Existing observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) technology is served as an important consideration in the indoor positioning technology. Since the OTDOA cannot have an enough accuracy only based on a cell specific reference signal, a positioning reference signal (PRS) is introduced.
However, the small cell does not transmit the PRS in an off state. In a case that the OTDOA is only based on the traditional PRS, a positioning accuracy for a user equipment is reduced and even it is unable to position the user equipment, when a large number of small cells are in the off state.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a new wireless communication technical solution to improve a positioning accuracy and accelerate a positioning process.